The key quartet in the negotiations on a new NHL collective-bargaining agreement met in Toronto for several hours Friday, a day after the league scrapped the first two weeks of the regular season, and the sides intend to stay in contact.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, deputy commissioner Bill Daly, NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr, and his brother, special counsel Steve Fehr, gathered at the union's offices, the NHLPA confirmed. "We met with the NHL today . . . regarding moving the process forward," union spokesman Jonathan Weatherdon said in a statement. "We will be in communication with the NHL over the weekend."

Bellmore product Matt Gilroy, 28, a defenseman who spent two seasons with the Rangers before leaving for Tampa as a free agent, has agreed to a contract with AHL Connecticut, the Rangers confirmed. Gilroy, who won the Hobey Baker Award with Boston University in 2009, had four goals and 11 assists in 69 games with the Rangers in 2009-10 and three goals and eight assists in 58 games in 2010-11. He played 53 games with the Lightning last season before he was traded to the Senators.

John Davidson, the former Rangers goalie and a Hall of Fame analyst whose career spanned MSG, NBC, Fox and ABC, has parted ways with the St. Louis Blues, who have a new owner. Davidson, 59, who has family in the New York area, had been Blues president of hockey operations since 2006. He agreed to a buyout and said he has not made a decision on his future.

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